Hello everyone,

I have always loved baking and decorating cakes; I am now just beginning to sell my cakes. I do pies and other desserts, too.

Anyway, how do you figure your exact cost of your cake? For example, I buy in bulk at Sam's Club. So when I use 1-2 cups of sugar, how do charge for that and the rest of my ingredients? I am probably over analyzing, but any help would be appreciated.

Happy Caking!

There have been lots and lots of threads on this topic. Do a search, either in the forum search page, or on Google, (type in your search topic and "cakecentral"), you'll find tons of info.

on the side of any package should be serving size info. for example, (just pulling numbers out of the air since I'm at work), a 5 lb bag of flour may say "Serving size: 1/2 cup..... number of servings: 16". this tells you there are 8 cups in a 5 lb bag of flour. Divide the cost of the flour by 8 cups and you have your price per cup.

Many of us keep this info on a spreadsheet and update it periodically. (I recommend quarterly). Sometimes you have to really do the math to figure stuff, like if the package has a serving size of 1 teaspoon and you use it by the cupful!

Some things are too miniscule to actually cost out. I came up with an avg number to cover "incidentals" for a batch-size. You determine what your batch size may be. (Mine was 2 cake mixes.) Just add $5 or $10 for small things. (Hubby gave me this idea. Said this is what garages do for topping off fluids, paper towels, the disposable seat protectors, etc.)